:Ship John Shoal Light
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox lighthouse
| image = Ship_john_shoal_light.JPG
| image_size = 300px
| caption = Ship John Shoal Light (USCG)
| location = Upper Delaware Bay near the Bombay Hook NWR
| coordinates = {{coord|39|18|19|N|75|22|36|W|display=inline,title}}
| yearbuilt = 1877
| automated = 1973
| foundation = Cast iron caisson
| construction = Cast iron with wood lining
| shape = Octagonal house with lantern on mansard roof
| marking = Brown with black lantern
| focalheight = {{convert|50|ft}}
| lens = Fourth order Fresnel lens (original), VRB-25 (current)
| range = White {{convert|16|nmi}}
Red {{convert|12|nmi}}
| characteristic = Flashing white 5s with red sector
| fogsignal = Original: Bell, 3 every 45s
Current: Horn, 1 every 15s
| racon = "O" (Oscar)
| module = {{Infobox NRHP
| embed = yes
| name = Ship John Shoal Light Station
| architect = U.S. Lighthouse Board
| architecture = Second Empire
| added = July 19, 2006
| area = {{convert|4.9|acre}}
| mpsub = Light Stations of the United States MPS
| refnum = 06000630{{NRISref|2009a}}
| designated_other1_name = New Jersey Register of Historic Places
| designated_other1_abbr = NJRHP
| designated_other1_link = New Jersey Register of Historic Places
| designated_other1_number = {{cite web|title=New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Cumberland County |url=http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/cumberland.pdf |publisher=New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office |page=12 |date=April 1, 2010 |accessdate=October 13, 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819104848/http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/cumberland.pdf |archivedate=August 19, 2011 }}
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| designated_other1_color = #ffc94b
}}
}}
The Ship John Shoal Light marks the north side of the ship channel in Delaware Bay on the east coast of the United States, near the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Its cast iron superstructure was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.{{cite uscgll|2|2009|17}}{{cite uscghist|DE}} N.B. The USCG site lists it in Delaware; it's actually in New Jersey.
History
Ship John Shoal took its name from an incident in 1797 in which the John, captained by Robert Folger, ran aground while on the way from Hamburg, Germany to Philadelphia. Passengers and cargo were unloaded safely, but the vessel was lost. (The figurehead is on exhibit in the Gibbon House Museum in Greenwich, New Jersey, the town to which the rescued passengers were taken.){{cite web
|title = Ship John Shoal Lighthouse
|url = http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=383
|publisher = lighthousefriends.com
|accessdate=2008-07-03}}
Completion of the original Brandywine Shoal Light in 1850 led the Lighthouse Board to draw up plans to erect similar lights at Ship John Shoal and Cross Ledge. Both of these were intended to be of the then-new screw-pile design. During construction of the Cross Ledge Light in the winter of 1856, however, ice carried away the entire structure, prompting reconsideration of the suitability of this type of foundation. In the 1870s caisson foundations became available, and in 1873 Congress appropriated funds toward the construction of a caisson light on the shoal. Wooden piles were driven and the caisson placed in 1874; however, insufficient time remained in the working season to complete the light, and a temporary structure was placed to allow display of a light from November of that year.
The incomplete structure managed to withstand the winter ice, but in January the keepers abandoned their temporary refuge out of fear that it would be overturned. They were able to return in March, but by then, the permanent superstructure had been diverted to the Southwest Ledge Light in Connecticut. An identical cast iron house was fabricated, but it was diverted to Philadelphia for display at the Centennial Exhibition, where it was even occupied by a keeper tending a working light in its lantern. The house did not reach the caisson until the summer of 1877; in the meantime, a lightship was stationed alongside the unfinished structure. The base had also been surrounded with 2,000 tons of riprap to ward off ice damage.
In 1907 additional riprap was dumped around the light, and about the same time a concrete platform was built on one of the two piles of rock in order to hold tanks for which there was no room in the light itself. In 1973 the light was automated, and four years later the original Fresnel lens was removed and replaced by a solar powered beacon, whose solar panels stand on the platform where the tanks once rested.{{cite web
|url = http://www.nps.gov/history/maritime/light/shipjohn.htm
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070704192409/http://www.nps.gov/history/maritime/light/shipjohn.htm
|url-status = dead
|archive-date = July 4, 2007
|title = Inventory of Historic Light Stations: New Jersey Lighthouses: Ship John Shoal Light
|accessdate=2008-07-03}}
In June 2011, the General Services Administration made the Ship John Shoal Light (along with 11 others) available at no cost to public organizations willing to preserve them.{{cite news|title=For sale: Waterfront property; cozy, great views, plenty of light, needs TLC|url=http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/12/for-sale-waterfront-property-cozy-great-views-plenty-of-light-needs-tlc/?hpt=hp_t2|accessdate=12 July 2011|newspaper=CNN|archive-date=15 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715183812/http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/12/for-sale-waterfront-property-cozy-great-views-plenty-of-light-needs-tlc/?hpt=hp_t2|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last=Beatty|first=MaryAnne|title=GSA Making 12 Historic Lighthouses Available at No Cost to Public Organizations Willing to Preserve Them|url=http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/286133|work=GSA Website|publisher=US General Services Administration|accessdate=12 July 2011|archive-date=22 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622054934/http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/286133|url-status=dead}}
Ship john shoal light pre 1914.jpg|Light shown in a pre-1914 postcard
References
{{reflist}}
{{Lighthouses of New Jersey}}
{{NRHP in Cumberland County, New Jersey}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Lighthouses completed in 1877
Category:1877 establishments in New Jersey
Category:Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey
Category:Second Empire architecture in New Jersey
Category:Transportation buildings and structures in Cumberland County, New Jersey
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Cumberland County, New Jersey